Fall of the Roman Empire

The Fall of the Roman Empire, also known as the "Barbarian Invasion", was a period in between 363 and 476 AD in which barbarian hordes from the east overran the Western Roman Empire and took over much of the Eastern Roman Empire. The invasion was caused by the conquests of the Huns, a brutal nomadic people who pushed the Goths, Sarmatians, Vandals, Roxolani, Lombards, Burgundii, and other peoples west into Roman lands. In 476 AD, Odoacer conquered the city of Rome from the Western Roman Empire, which is seen as the end of the Roman Empire (even though it took almost 1,000 more years for the Eastern Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire afterwards, to fall).

Pax Romana
The Roman Empire was established in 27 BC by Emperor Augustus after he defeated his enemy Mark Athony and Queen Cleopatra of Ptolemaic Egpyt. Its boundaries stretched from the British Isles, France, and Morocco to the west to the Elbe River, Lake Van, and the Jordan River to the east, with its territories consolidated during the Pax Romana. The empire was diverse, with many ethnic groups, cultures, and languages, even though the Roman emperors spread the Latin language and architecture across their lands. The empire build aqueducts to transport water and built roads across the empire that all led to Rome, and their empire seemed to be one that could last forever. However, they continually fought against Germania, the several tribes in present-day Germany and eastern Europe that continued to resist Roman rule. In addition, the Celts in the British Isles, the Parthian Empire in the Middle East, the Berbers in North Africa, and pirates and brigands within the empire continued to destabilize the lands. Civil wars and coups were common during the Roman Era, as the Praetorian Guard effectively decided who the emperor would be - if they did not like the emperor, they would kill him and elect a new one.

Division of the Roman Empire
The first signs of a division of the Roman Empire were in 285, where the empire was given two rulers. The empire had on-and-off divisions, with some emperors reuniting the empire briefly before it was divided again. From 285-324, 337-350, 363-392, and 395-480, the empire was divided into two emperors, while Diocletian attempted to divide the empire into tetrarchs from 293 to 313. However, this also failed.

In 363 AD, Emperor Julius the Apostate was killed in battle with the Sassanids at the Battle of Ctesiphon, suffering a huge defeat in the war against Emperor Shapur II of Persia. The empire was divided in half again, with Valentinian I ruling over the Western Roman Empire and Flavius Valens ruling over the Eastern Roman Empire. This time, the two empires would not re-join, as they now had to face their own internal issues. Eastern Roman Rebels rose up in North Africa and Palestine, and while these revolts were easily crushed, Western Roman Rebels overran much of The Balkans and Western Roman-held North Africa. Rather than quelling the uprisings, Valentinian ignored them, and the Western Roman Rebels would take over almost all of Western Rome Proper and North Africa, while the real emperors ruled from Britannia.

The Huns
Another problem was the Huns. Invaders from Mongolia, the Huns were a nomadic people that were infamous for their cavalry archers and their cruelty. The Huns pushed several tribes out of Russia and into Europe through their ferocity, often massacring villages or enslaving the populace. They would sack every wealthy city that they bypassed, stealing all of the money and leaving the city in ruins. Their hordes invaded Russia in 363 AD, and the Roxolani were their first victims. They conquered the Roxolani homeland in present-day Ukraine and also took over Vicus Sarmatae, and the Huns quickly took over Eastern Europe for themselves.

As the Huns advanced, the Germanic tribes retreated into the Roman Empire. Without homes, many tribes formed hordes, with all of the able-bodied men fighting so that they could gain a home somewhere. The Goths lived in Romania while the Sarmatians inhabited Moldavia, but both of these locations were soon overrun by the Hunnic barbarians. In addition, the Lombards and the Burgundii were forced out of their homes in the Baltics and northern Germany, and they eventually settled in places far from home - the Burgundii took over eastern France, while the Lombards eventually conquered northern Italy. The Romans would later be defeated at the 379 AD Battle of Adrianople because of the homeless Goths' need for a new settlement.

The German Wars
In addition to the tribes coming in from Russia, the Romans also had to face the tribes already established in Europe. The Franks, a confederation of Germanic tribes in western Germany, expanded into the Western Roman Empire's territory in Gaul, while the Alemanni invaded their lands on the Danube and the Saxons prepared to invade Britannia. The Roman emperors were constantly at war with their Germanic neighbors, but at this stage in history, they were losing. Germanic generals fighting for Rome often betrayed them, such as the Frankish general Arbogast that aided Eugenius's bid to become emperor in the 394 Battle of the Frigidus and the mercenary leader Odoacer who conquered Rome in 476. In addition, the Germans sacked Rome on many occasions, including Alaric I's conquest of the city briefly in 410.